Korean Air Force F-5 fighter jet crashes in Hwaseong

An Air Force F-5E fighter jet crashed in central South Korea, Tuesday, with the fate of the single pilot onboard unconfirmed, according to military officials.

The aircraft crashed into a mountain in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, at 1:46 p.m., minutes after taking off from an Air Force base in Suwon, south of Seoul, they added.

"We are checking if the pilot made an emergency exit," the Air Force said in a statement.

The cause of the accident was not immediately known.

South Korea has operated around 200 F-5s since the 1970s, most of which are out of service or soon to be so after reaching their full life cycle.

The same type of the jet crashed into a mountain in central South Korea in 2013 during a training flight due to poor maintenance.

Tuesday's plane crash is the latest incident involving the Air Force's jets. Last week, an F-35A fighter made an emergency landing in Seosan, 150 kilometers south of Seoul, also during a training flight. (Yonhap)